Astronomy Picture Of the Day (APOD)

How bright will Nova Carinae 2018 become?
The new nova was
discovered only last week.
Although novas
occur frequently throughout the universe, this nova, cataloged as
ASASSN-18fv,
is so unusually bright in the
skies of Earth
that it is now easily visible through binoculars in the
southern
hemisphere.

Normally faint and elusive, the Jellyfish Nebula is caught in
this alluring telescopic image.
Centered in the scene it's anchored right and left by two bright stars,
Mu
and
Eta
Geminorum, at the foot of the
celestial
twin.
The Jellyfish Nebula is the brighter arcing
ridge of emission with dangling tentacles.

Shiny NGC 253
is one of the brightest spiral galaxies visible, and also one of
the dustiest.
Some call it the Silver Dollar Galaxy for its appearance in small
telescopes, or just the Sculptor Galaxy for its location within
the boundaries of the southern constellation Sculptor.

It is considered the oldest known illustration of the night sky.
But what, exactly, does it depict, and why was it made?
The Nebra sky disk was found with a metal detector in 1999 by treasure hunters near
Nebra,
Germany,
in the midst of several
bronze-age
weapons.

No one, presently, sees the Moon rotate like this.
That's because the Earth's moon is tidally locked to the Earth, showing us
only one side.
Given modern digital technology, however, combined with many detailed images returned
by the
Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a high
resolution virtual
Moon rotation movie has been composed.

The Crab Nebula is cataloged as M1, the first object on
Charles
Messier's famous list of things which are not comets.
In fact,
the
Crab is now known to be a
supernova remnant,
expanding debris from the death explosion of a massive star.

Seen as a seagull and a duck, these nebulae are
not the only
cosmic clouds to
evoke images of flight.
But both are winging their way across this broad
celestial landscape, spanning almost 7 degrees across
planet Earth's night sky
toward the constellation
Canis Major.